“Diamond, my Darling,” Beryl soothed. She dragged out the word in such a way that I wondered if she wanted something or was trying to talk down to me. “You know how it is being Queen. I’ve just been so…busy and nobody told me you were hurt or I would have been over here at once.”

I felt a lump in my throat forming as my annoyance grew. Did she really think I was that slow to believe this wasn’t meaningful? “I was dead, Beryl. I wasn’t hurt. I was practically dead for ten months!” Beryl finally came after I had telepathically called to her for the last month and a half. And now that she finally arrived to visit me as I recovered, she did not look the least bit worried.

“Don’t be so sensitive,” she chided. “Obviously, you’re fine now and I’m glad you’re okay.” She flashed a smile. “Now, tell me something, Lucifer,” she took a piece of her mauve-colored hair between her fingers and began twirling it. I had figured out long ago that this was something she did on purpose to feign cuteness. “Why aren’t we going to the Winter Ball?”

I groaned in anger. “Really, Beryl? Is that what’s important right now? Formal events where you can dress up and flirt with everybody else’s boyfriend and husband again like at the last formal date we had?

“You know it’s been so long since we’ve had a vacation or honeymoon of any sort. Maybe I was just lonely,” she laughed as if she had just said something funny.

“Whatever,” I wouldn’t be manipulated into thinking the best of her anymore. “Just leave me alone!”

There was a knock at the door. “Lulu?” a timid voice called from behind. “Lulu? Can I come in?”

“Who is that?!” Beryl demanded.

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s just my sister. You know, Selena, your ‘favorite sister-in-law?’ Whom you loved to call ‘mini-me?’”

“Oh, yes,” Beryl grinned. “Your adorable sister. I haven’t seen her since she was six years old. How old is she now?”

The door opened and Selena emerged with a bouquet of yellow roses. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty,” she curtsied stiffly after letting herself in.

“You,” Beryl’s eyes narrowed and she glared at Selena darkly. No doubt, as I read her mind, I realized that she was angry at not just how similar Selena had grown to look like her, but also how much more she shone. Not only was Selena every bit as beautiful as Beryl in her features, but her starry, sparkling skin and radiance was making Beryl envious. Beryl never paid much attention when Selena was little, but now, she felt that Selena had grown to be a better, more attractive version of herself in every way. “Why do you look like that?!”

“Like what?” Selena replied, taken aback. She looked down at her gleaming white dress. It was a ballgown made of fine silk, Beryl’s favorite fabric that she would often go on and on about.

This didn’t look good.

“Oh, this?" My sister didn’t know or understand cattiness, so she was clueless towards Beryl’s train of thought. "I was getting ready for the Winter Ball to meet my betrothed. I just wanted to bring some new flowers for my brother’s room.”

“You!” Beryl seethed. “You’re a twin, aren’t you?” Selena stared at her blankly for a moment, not sure what Beryl meant. “Don’t play dumb with me!” Beryl continued, “you’re here to replace me, to take my kingdom too, aren’t you?!”

“Beryl,” I interrupted. “She’s just a girl going to a ball. She doesn’t know anything about that.”

“Stay out of this!” Beryl shrieked. She turned to me with a crazed look in her eyes I had never seen. “Why didn’t you tell me your own sister was my replacement after all this time?” she spoke through gritted teeth.

This was not good at all.

“Leave my brother alone,” Selena said firmly. “Nobody is replacing anybody. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I do know that your looks or your crown shouldn’t be your deepest concern when your husband is ill.”

This was bad. Selena had no idea what Beryl was capable of when she was angry. Using telepathy, I could already see what Beryl was planning to do to my sister. She began to recite the incantation needed to summon phoenix fire.

“Beryl, stop!” I yelled. I had no way of halting her besides hoping she would listen. I was still too weak for my magic or spells to work. I panicked. Beryl only needed seven latin words to erupt the burst of energy needed to wield her phoenix fire. Though water wielding could easily put out most magical fires, my sister’s only water ability was ice, which is naturally disadvantaged against conjured fire.

Purple flames began to form above Beryl’s fingertips. Fire was not only the most unyielding and dangerous element to wield, but it was the only one capable of seriously hurting the very person who conjured it. Right away, she began to make arm movements to direct it towards Selena.

Selena froze for a second. I couldn’t yell to get her attention or she would take her eyes off Beryl to look at me. I could only hope the archangel taught her how to defend herself and that her training would kick in any second now.

Too late. Beryl sent a stream of purple flames aimed at Selena’s face. Selena formed an “X” shape with her arms and then side stepped the attack. She even added an acrobatic cartwheel to put more distance between her and the direction of the fire. An icy wind from the “X” Spell-Block blew the flames back in Beryl’s direction and her hair caught on fire. I had no idea my sister could move that fast in a gown.

Selena panicked as Beryl shrieked. My sister looked around frantically, repeating, “what do I do, what do I do,” as she sympathized with the very person trying to kill her or scar her for life. She finally seemed to come to a decision and aimed her fingertips at Beryl, causing her entire head of hair to freeze.

“It’s cold! It’s cold!! IT’S FREEZING!!!” Beryl screamed. “Get it off me! Get it off me now!!”

“I can’t,” Selena tried to explain. “I don’t know how to undo it. You just have to wait till it melts.”

Beryl shrieked again. “It’s giving me a headache!” But as Selena became regretful of hurting Beryl, the ice was already melting away into slush, revealing dark ashen locks amongst clumps of hair that had been singed together by the flames.

“Serves you right,” I muttered loudly. “Nobody messes with my sister but me.”

Beryl slapped me across the cheek. “If you and your sister are so close, then,” she began. “Maybe, I should tell her the story about how you almost had another wife until you decided to marry me.”

“You wouldn’t,” I gritted my teeth.

“Poor Princess Tanzanite. Raven, I believe was her first name? She never really did get over losing her soulmate, the one betrothed to her by God himself. But I guess you just couldn’t resist me, could you?” she stated.

“Princess Tanzanite?” Selena repeated. “Isn’t that Prince Sapphire’s older sister?” She looked at me in horror.

“Yes, that one,” Beryl added. “I heard she never married and she rarely goes out, still to this day.”

“You have no idea how pitiful you look,” I told her. “Harping about my ex with your hair looking like that.” I wore a smug look, but there was no way to salvage how my sister thought of me after that. And now she knew why I wasn’t invited to the Winter Ball.